I believe that
Drosselmeyer has a deeper meaning in
The Nutcracker, than just
an eccentric old man. Can he and the music that depicts him be, perhaps
an extension of the composer's fears and anxieties? The separation motif
throughout the ballet is obvious. Can anybody expound on this subject?
Carlos Danaan
Actually the music of no. 4 of the ballet is a little bit strange and
fearsome. There are deep tone colours, esp. in clarinets and horns with
sordino (“chiuso”). Also in no 6 of the ballet - the huge climax
symbolising the growing tree sounds greatly and sinisterly at the same
time.
This shows, that Tchaikovsky was really a master of sounds and spirits.
And he makes the fears of the children hearable and sensible. The vibes of
Drosselmeyer are requirements of the libretto and following the requests
of Petipa and Vsevolozhskii.
Evidently there is no deeper meaning than the programmatic demands.
Nevertheless you could immerse oneself in speculation about the
deepness of the Drosselmeyer music. As you know from the work description
at tchaikovsky-research.org Tchaikovsky was not enthusiastic about the
sujet of the Nutcracker. In the late work of Tchaikovsky the Nutcracker is
the only opus which deals intensively with children and childhood issues.
Tchaikovsky’s own happy childhood was terribly brought to an end, when his
beloved mother early died of cholera. So Tchaikovsky possible had an
ambivalent feeling to “childhood” in general and his own childhood
especially. This ambivalence perhaps is reflected at some parts of the
Nutcracker, especially at Drosselmeyer who is drastically the opposite of
a child and the only old figure in the ballet. Besides of that, during the
composition of the Nutcracker his beloved sister Sasha was ill and died
(but after the composition of no. 4 !). In general Tchaikovsky was
well-balanced in his soul after the crises in the eighteen nineties, but
sometimes he claimed hair loss and the loss of a tooth - like an old man.
It's known that Tchaikovsky in his programmatic music himslef
identified more with female figueres before the crisis of 1877 (Katja in "Grosa", Julia in "Romeo and Juliett", "Francesca da Rimini").
After 1877 more male figueres are interesting like Manfred ("Manfred-Symphony"), "Hamlet "and "Voevoda". So Drosselmeyer
also offers an identification pattern for himself.
But it’s just a speculation.
I recommend you to busy yourself with the rather unknown
2nd Suite, op. 53, composed
ca. 8 years before Nutcracker. The 2nd movement, “reves d’un enfant” could
be interesting for you to discover parallels to the Nutcracker.
Rüdiger Herpich